142 GARDEN ROSES. 



to sixty hours before the public is admitted to see them, 

 a part of which time they are packed in boxes almost 

 immured from air and light, the wonder is that they look 

 as fresh as they do. 



Then, again, the mere exhibitor of Roses runs too 

 much after one idea form to be a safe guide when 

 choosing for garden decoration. He does not heed 

 sufficiently habit and constitution, and hence the sym- 

 metrical flower of the exhibition table is often the 

 offspring of a weakly or shabby tree. We want good 

 Roses ; but we want also, for the purpose of general 

 gardening, varieties of hardy constitution that will grow 

 and flower well, and live to a good old age, without the 

 petting and coaxing which so many of the modern 

 varieties require. To choose Roses, unless exhibiting 

 is the main object in view, one should see them in their 

 rural homes, where the act of "getting up" is seldom 

 practised, and pretty faces count only at their proper 

 worth should see them when newly opened by the 

 breath of morn, and while still wet with the dews of 

 heaven. Freshness is the crowning beauty, the inde- 

 scribable and irresistible charm of the Queen of Flowers, 

 and this freshness is wanting in nine-tenths of the flowers 

 met with on the exhibition tables. But there is more in 

 the matter than this. The practised Rosarian may gather 

 from a solitary bloom, or a trio of blooms, whether the 

 plant is of hardy or delicate constitution, whether the 

 bearing is handsome or awkward, whether the flowers are 

 generally or only occasionally fine, and the many other 

 little points important though often overlooked in the 

 hasty generalisations of this busy age, and which go to 

 make up a good Rose the practised Rosarian, I say, may 

 arrive pretty accurately at these facts from cut specimens, 

 but woe be to the unpractised who decides and acts on 

 such evidence. Daily experience confirms the opinion 

 long entertained by the writer, that they who want Roses 

 to decorate their gardens should choose from growing 



